Oppenheim is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is a well-known wine center, being the home of the German Winegrowing Museum, and is particularly known for the wines from the Oppenheimer Krötenbrunnen vineyards. The town lies on the Upper Rhine in Rhenish Hesse between Mainz and Worms. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde (special administrative district).
In Oppenheim, wine was given considerable publicity by Mayor Dr. Heinz Scheller after he took office in 1935: For Scheller, the only city worthy of sponsoring Oppehneim’s wine was none other than the capital, Berlin. The town of Ansbach and the city of Osnabrück were also subsequently chosen. To revive this wine sponsorship and to give thanks for the commitment to the town of Oppenheim, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, was “knighted” on 11 March 2006 by Mayor Marcus Held, earning the title of “Wine Knight” (Weinritter). The sponsorship has found active expression in, among other things, the town’s participation in the estate festivals held by the Senate of Berlin in 2007 and 2008. At the invitation of Berlin’s governing mayor, Klaus Wowereit, a citizens’ delegation, under Mayor Marcus Held, took part in the festivities at the German Embassy in Paris on German Unity Day, as well as during the jubilee celebrations of the Berlin-Paris city partnership.
Landskron Castle’s ruins, with a lovely view over the Rhine rift and other church buildings in Oppenheim, also a venue for festival plays and other cultural events.
The old town with its marketplace, town hall from 1621 (with a column from Landskron Castle’s hall in front, which reputedly came from the Ingelheim Imperial Palace), the former town fortifications with the Gautor and Rheintorpforte (gates), clocktower and town wall remnants, and unique museums (German Viticultural Museum, Town Museum).
Quite extraordinary is the Oppenheimer Kellerlabyrinth (“Oppenheim Cellar Labyrinth”) under the Old Town. Underground passageways, stairways and rooms link the houses and facilities with each other on a number of levels. In the heart of Old Town, near the Town Hall, there are altogether roughly 650 m of cellar passageways open to visitors, which are largely preserved in their original state. It is believed, however, that what has been opened to the public is only about 3% of the total underground passages. The exact extent of the passageways is still not known with any great certainty, despite investigations commissioned by the town, but the length is estimated to be at least 40 km. Guided tours through this unique underground labyrinth are offered all year round by the town’s Tourism and Festival Play Bureau. There are also town tours and night watchman tours.
[caption id="attachment_241787" align="aligncenter" width="455"] Caspar David Friedrich by Gerhard von Kügelgen[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Caspar David Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most i...
